So, when 1944 rolled around Decca and a lot of smaller record labels had settled with the American Federation of Musicians and were recording with musicians once again, so they had no further need for a cappella recordings.
But the giant RCA Victor and Columbia labels entered 1944 with no agreement, so they needed to issue vocal-only records in order to keep new product flowing.
So, let's listen to some 1944 movie songs from those labels!
Side note: Capitol Records had also settled with the musicians' union in 1943, so they were back to business as usual, but I don't think they had issued any a cappella records. They had actually started up in April of 1942, which was just a couple of months before the recording ban started, so I guess they just rode out the storm.
RCA Victor had signed former Ted Weems vocalist Perry Como in 1943, so like Decca with Dick Haymes, they needed to get some product out there to keep their new singing star in the public eye. As a result, Perry recorded several records with a "mixed chorus."
Perry's first top-ten hit was his version of the beautiful Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin standard "Long Ago (And Far Away)" from Columbia's "Cover Girl" starring Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly:
I think that sounds great!
Dinah Shore had been successfully recording for Victor before the recording ban started, but she also cut some vocal only records with the "mixed chorus" (Decca credited the vocal groups, but Victor and Columbia did not).
Dinah appeared in a few movies in the mid-1940s, but like Perry Como, she preferred to concentrate on radio and later television, achieving huge success in those media in addition to a long string of hit records.
Dinah introduced the popular WWII song "I'll Walk Alone" in Universal's all-star "Something for the Boys" and had a huge hit record with it:
Very evocative of the era!
Dinah also appeared opposite Danny Kaye in the Goldwyn movie "Up in Arms," which was Danny's feature debut. Dinah had a hit with "Now I Know":
I had mentioned before that Dinah Shore had a somewhat different career arc from other singing stars in that she made a name for herself on the radio, especially Eddie Cantor's show, rather than having made her name singing with a band.
One of Dinah's rivals in the mid-1940s was Ginny Simms, who had come to prominence with the highly popular Kay Kyser band.
Ginny had appeared with Kay in his movies for RKO and made a few movies after beginning her solo career, including MGM's "Broadway Rhythm," in which she sang "Irresistible You." She recorded that song for Columbia with a choral background:
I do most associate movie Ginny Simms with her appearance in one of my favorite Abbott and Costello movies, "Hit the Ice" from 1943!
Let's jump back over to RCA for one more movie song released on their Bluebird subsidiary.
Here's the Four King Sisters singing "The Trolley Song," as introduced by Judy Garland in MGM's "Meet Me in St. Louis":
The King Sisters had been singing with the Alvino Rey band (Alvino and Luise King were married) and made some popular records but later found their greatest fame with the King Family on 1960s TV.
Next we go back to Columbia Records for the gentleman who kind of jump-started the whole former-band-singer-turning-solo-star thing - Frank Sinatra!
Frank had sang (sung?) with Harry James's band, then achieved great popularity with Tommy Dorsey before making the bobby-soxers swoon in his solo theater appearances.
He started making movies and signed with Columbia Records, who had to get some records out to take advantage of the publicity!
Frank's movie debut as a solo star was "Higher and Higher," which had some great songs by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh including "I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night" and "A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening," which were paired on this record:
The uncredited chorus is the Bobby Tucker singers with Axel Stordahl supervising.
Another song from "Higher and Higher" had a title that ironically summed up the whole situation:
The music stopped, but they kept on singing!
I really enjoy these records and I'm glad these great movie songs were preserved as such - band or no band!
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